Born As The Daughter Of A Lowly Concubine [EN]: Chapter 22

After a few years, even the word ‘Oppa’ [older brother, used by females] which I thought would never come out of my mouth, became manageable.

‘His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is… a lifesaver, sweet, and handsome, so it’s not hard to call him Oppa, I guess.’

I just want to abandon my conscience and call him Oppa, even if he’s my real brother.

‘The little one jumped into the water when I fell in, even though he can’t swim. I should just call him Oppa. …When he gets a little older.’

To be precise, it wouldn’t be ‘Oppa’ but ‘Oraboni’ [a more formal term for older brother].

The term ‘Oppa’ is originally baby talk, so in the strict royal court, they teach you to use ‘Oraboni’ from the start.

‘Come to think of it, in modern times, the word ‘Oppa’ has become established as everyday language even for adults. Actually, ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’ are the same, baby words like ‘Gaga’ or ‘Mama’.’

Seeing it that way, I think I can understand the older folks who hate it when couples call each other Oppa.

‘Well, language keeps changing, so I guess it can’t be helped. Baby words like Mom and Dad don’t seem to change much from ancient times.’

Expressions like ‘Mama’ and ‘Abba’ are not just present in ancient times but are similar worldwide.

It’s a strange situation where the era is like the Middle Ages, but we’re not using Middle Korean, so I guess it doesn’t matter what titles we use.

Anyway, Grand Prince Yeongwon is worth calling Oraboni. On that day, Gyeongwon-gun, now Grand Prince Yeongwon, even went crazy and attacked Gyeongeon-gun, punching him, I heard.

That was why I was being treated like a criminal when I woke up that day.

Of course, after Gyeongeon-gun’s actions were revealed, he was re-evaluated as a commendable Oraboni who jumped in without hesitation for his younger sibling.

‘But I think he was lectured that punching isn’t allowed, but they didn’t really punish him.’

As I sat on the Crown Prince’s lap, swinging my legs, he used a spoon to scoop out a small glutinous rice ball from a yuansiao (元宵餠: glutinous rice dumplings in honey water or fruit punch) made with omija [magnolia berry] syrup and held it out to me.

“Sia-ya, ah~”

“Ah~”

It’s not like he’s a stranger, and if I call a real older biological male sibling Oppa, I get snacks and clothes, so there’s no reason not to.

Grand Prince Yeongwon glared at me with dissatisfied eyes as I eagerly ate what the Crown Prince fed me.

“You have to eat carefully.”

“Okay.”

“These days, His Highness can’t seem to stay away from Sia.”

“He won’t be able to do this when she gets a little older. Boys and girls shouldn’t sit together after the age of seven.”

“Even now, it’s not very royal-like behavior…”

Because they value decorum so much as royalty, even the young children’s attitudes were stiff.

And the stiffest of them all was Grand Prince Yeongwon, who became a Grand Prince a few years ago.

Perhaps because he is the only child of the current Queen, she was the strictest with Grand Prince Yeongwon.

‘Originally, he should have become the Crown Prince, right?’

The novel was a palace romance novel set in a fictional Joseon era [Korean kingdom from 1392-1897].

‘No, was the palace intrigue more significant?’

Anyway, Yi Hwa, the male protagonist, was Grand Prince Yeongwon until he was appointed as the Crown Prince.

For reference, the reason I vaguely remembered the title Grand Prince Yeongwon was that the villainous prince couldn’t accept his younger brother becoming the Crown Prince and kept calling him Grand Prince Yeongwon.

And the fact that the Grand Prince became the Crown Prince meant that there was a Crown Prince before that, and something happened to that Crown Prince.

‘Youngbin sat herself in the Queen’s seat and killed the current Crown Prince Yi Hye and Consort Seon, who also became the Queen in the original story, to make Gyeongeon-gun the Crown Prince.’

To be precise, it wasn’t just Youngbin but her whole family working together.

But despite killing the Queen and the Crown Prince, the King took another concubine as the Queen, and Youngbin ended up not becoming the Queen, only doing good for others, as Grand Prince Yeongwon was chosen as the Crown Prince.

And Gyeongwon-gun, no, the new Crown Prince, would alienate and slander the Queen and plot murder, threatening the Crown Prince with all sorts of bad deeds before meeting his demise.

Youngbin and Gyeongeon-gun were such villains.

‘In other words, they were supposed to be the final bosses in the novel… but here, they were cut off early.’

Originally, she wasn’t supposed to become the Queen anyway, but her downfall was extremely fast.

But I was the one who pushed them away like that.

‘If that guy hadn’t messed with our mother and daughter, such an extreme development wouldn’t have happened.’

This is what you call karma.

Of course, considering the contents of the novel, it was a very fortunate thing.

‘The Princess’s existence didn’t even appear in the novel.’

I only vaguely remembered that when Gyeongeon-gun met his demise, there was a passing testimony that he had harmed his young sisters in his childhood.

Just looking back at what he did to me, I couldn’t say he was normal, so I didn’t want to think about what he might have done.

In any case, it was not a bad development from my perspective.

The Crown Prince seemed so innocent that I was worried, and he had a good relationship with his siblings.

The King seemed to be aware of that personality and tried to exclude the Crown Prince as much as possible from the Youngbin and Gyeongeon-gun affairs.

Youngbin was left as a Royal Concubine considering the Left State Councilor’s face, and Gyeongeon-gun was living in confinement with his birth mother.

‘I must have earned some resentment.’

Moreover, the Left State Councilor eventually took responsibility for not teaching his daughter well and resigned from his position…

They were the ones who harmed the Crown Prince in the original story, but wouldn’t it be difficult now?

‘Would they make another unreasonable move in this situation?’

If something happened to the Crown Prince now, it would be easy for anyone to assume that the retired Left State Councilor and Gyeongeon-gun held a grudge and harmed the Crown Prince.

Besides, since the people they meet are limited, it wouldn’t be easy to plot anything.

Thanks to that, the past few years have been peaceful.

Except for the Crown Princess, who died a few years after getting married.

‘She was a good person.’

She was kind, but it must have been hard to endure the royal life, as she fell ill more and more often and eventually…

After that, the already quiet Crown Prince became even more silent, and everyone was worried.

He’s much better these days, though.

“I heard Grand Prince Yeongwon is teaching Sia how to read?”

“He’s just teaching her a few characters from the Thousand Character Classic [a classic Chinese text used for literacy], so it’s embarrassing to call it reading. Sia also hates studying.”

“Haha. Is it not fun?”

“No.”

I answered sullenly, and the Crown Prince chuckled and placed the sikhye [sweet rice beverage] in front of me.

Why is the Crown Prince, who has been waited on his whole life, so quick-witted?

Of course, I’ve already mastered Hunminjeongeum [the Korean alphabet].

Of course, it’s basic for Crown Princes in this neighborhood to master the Thousand Character Classic around my age, but no one was so impatient with the education of a Princess who has no reason to be obsessed with studying.

“His Majesty is teaching her himself, so she’ll improve quickly, won’t she?”

Not really… It’s just that my biological father is very interested.

‘Since I have nothing to do anyway and I’m bored, I don’t dislike studying itself… but I don’t know how much I should do.’

I don’t want to get a genius title for no reason.

Of course, it’s not a big problem if I’m called a genius.

‘If I were a prince, I might be checked for no reason, but I’m a princess.’

The more I think about it, the more comfortable it is to be born as a princess. There are no full-blooded male siblings who could be the Crown Prince’s rivals.

“His Majesty seems to just want to be with Sia rather than teach her. He must want to find rest by looking at Sia, as he’s always exhausted from state affairs.”

The Crown Prince’s gaze, as he said that, was also blankly staring into the distance, which wasn’t very normal.

‘He must be very tired.’

Well, judging from the facts I’ve naturally heard while being with my biological father, it seems he has a lot of work to do, and the officials are bothersome and give him a headache.

“Oraboni. Are you tired?”

“I’m not tired when I’m with Sia.”

He hugged me even though it wasn’t hot, so he was definitely not normal.

I wanted to put up with it, but it was too hot for me, so I pushed him away firmly.

“It’s hot. Get off.”

“Sia is cold…”

“Your Highness. Get a grip.”

“Grand Prince Yeongwon is cold too…”

At the Crown Prince’s weak voice, Grand Prince Yeongwon and I chuckled pointlessly.

The Crown Prince’s efforts to make time for snacks to see his younger siblings were paying off, but the pleasant time was always short.

“Your Highness the Crown Prince.”

“Ah. It’s already that time.”

The Crown Prince’s face showed regret as he looked at the eunuch with a sour expression who had come to urge him.

Unlike the young siblings who were doing their part just by growing up well, the Crown Prince, who had a lot of work to do, was still busy, and the talk of selecting a Crown Princess was slowly coming up again.

‘We can’t keep it empty like this.’

As I stared blankly, the Crown Prince reached out his arm one last time, hugged me, and went to heal.

I felt sorry for him having to go to work in this heat, so I patted his back, and a smile bloomed on his handsome face. I’m used to it now, but the fact that he’s handsome hasn’t changed.

“Oraboni will go to work now.”

“Okay. Work hard. Sia will play nicely.”

As I waved my hand, the Crown Prince also waved his hand with a regretful face and disappeared.

The second prince, who also had the face of a male lead, looked at that scene with a sullen face.

“You’re still acting innocent in front of His Highness.”

“Yeah. Same to you.”

“What was that?”

The palace people, who were used to such bickering, held back their laughter and lowered their heads to pretend they didn’t hear.

And we each took a snack to get away from those palace people. The palace was a place where you couldn’t even chat freely because there were too many listening ears.

After confirming that the palace people were far enough away, I held out a snack to Grand Prince Yeongwon and said playfully.

“Grand Prince Yeongwon, who’s been studying hard these days. Want a snack?”

“Where do you hear such rumors?”

“There are no secrets in the palace.”

Grand Prince Yeongwon sighed, as if my words sounded meaningful.

“You’re not very childlike.”

“When have you ever seen a child besides me?”

“Why can’t you let a single word go by?”

The two of us walked quickly towards the pond.

Because there was a disturbing past, many people were anxious about me going to the pond, so I was with Grand Prince Yeongwon as much as possible when I took a walk by the pond.

Since they knew we were deliberately keeping our distance, the other palace people followed us at a suitable distance on their own.

Like when I was with the Crown Prince earlier, these brothers didn’t scold me for speaking comfortably if there were no listeners.

“Is it because of the Queen?”

“…When I said I would learn martial arts following the Crown Prince, she seemed displeased.”

“Hmm.”

I roughly came to a conclusion based on the information I had learned in the palace, but I wondered if I should explain this to a child.

The royal children mature quickly, so even though Grand Prince Yeongwon was only 12 years old, it was a bit much for me, who was only 6 years old, to explain this, right?

‘The Queen seems to be wary that Grand Prince Yeongwon might become an unnecessary target of the Crown Prince’s faction.’

The Crown Prince is so kind and good to him that Grand Prince Yeongwon might not feel it yet, but there was a subtly wary atmosphere even within the inner court.

She rose to the Queen’s position, but she doesn’t have much power. She’s also originally physically weak.

Fortunately, Youngbin’s affair was so big that everyone was careful, so the inner court had no choice but to be quiet.

I decided to reassure the child by making excuses appropriately for now.

“The Queen must be worried that you’ll get hurt. She must be sensitive because she has a lot to worry about because of the Crown Princess selection.”

“That’s true too. The Crown Princess selection is coming up soon.”

Grand Prince Yeongwon nodded, as if my words were somewhat persuasive.

“I should study quietly for a while so she doesn’t have to worry.”

“Do it moderately. You’re still at an age where you should be playing a lot.”

“Haha. That’s true for you. But His Highness is happy that I’m studying, so it’s hard to stop. It’s also fun.”

It’s strange that they like studying so much.

‘I’m fine now since I’m just learning Chinese characters, but if they tell me to learn the duties of a woman later, I feel like I’ll throw the book away.’

In fact, I have a history of throwing it away when I was a baby.

When I was younger than now, I thought they were going to teach me useless things, so I threw away books with 女 (woman) or 婦 (wife) at the Thousand Character Classic stage and picked up books with 史 (history), and they gave up and put them away, probably because they knew my personality well.

‘History books are better.’

I’m the type of person who didn’t even look at self-help books when I was in college.

No, don’t shove things like the Analects [collection of sayings and ideas attributed to the Chinese philosopher Confucius] in front of a child in the first place.

Grand Prince Yeongwon rambled on about this and that to his much younger sister before leaving because it was time for his writing teacher to come.

“Agi-ssi [term of endearment for a young noble lady]. It’s dangerous if you go near the pond.”

“Okay.”

The court lady who was following me carefully approached, as she was anxious because I was standing alone near the pond.

It was annoying, but I didn’t say anything because of who she was and stepped back.

‘I guess she’s very worried because I went through something that wouldn’t be strange to have trauma from.’

This court lady who is following me now was Jo Gae, who used to be Youngbin’s court lady.

Jo Gae, who had confessed everything and ended up betraying her master, was eventually incorporated into my palace people.

Her younger sister was also with her in the back.

‘It’s good to have sisters together.’

The writer, or rather, the parents, must have been too lazy to name her, so her younger sister’s name was So Yi.

Both are common names in this era.

“Would you like to play hide-and-seek with the Saenggaksi [young, unmarried palace maids]?”

“Hmm.”

I shook my head at Jo Gae’s words.

Fortunately, it’s very comfortable to be born as royalty, but I can’t help but miss the things to play with and eat compared to my previous life.

Ah, now that I think about it.

“Shall I bring some snacks to Father and Oraboni?”

“They’ll be happy.”

“I guess Yakgwa [Korean honey cookies] would be good.”

I relatively prefer Korean sweets, but I still miss bread and chocolate…

But I can’t ask to import cacao.

‘Was the main production area of cacao… Africa?’

This would be a bit difficult, right?

Then how about bread? Wheat flour is relatively rare in the Joseon era, but there are seeds.

There are various types of native wheat, but usually, they are used for making noodles, so if you make bread, it won’t be fluffy but chewy, but I don’t really care, so it doesn’t matter.

‘But a child kneading wheat flour and baking bread…? Is that strange?’

Thanks to my sister, who used to be a baking enthusiast, I still remember how to make it… but it’s too strange for a child like me to suddenly start kneading wheat flour, right?

Is there anything simpler I can make with some excuse?

“Ah.”

“?”

“Let’s go to the Saenggwabang [palace kitchen].”

I need eggs, eggs.